Let’s celebrate Independence Day with a sale worthy of fireworks!

We’re proud of our American made products. Made in the USA, they keep our dollars in not just our country but in our communities. That’s cause for celebration!

We’ll start our sale with a store-wide$10 coupon on purchases over $99. Enter code USA4th in the box at checkout. The code is good starting today through Sunday, July 6th, 2014.

The following items are marked at their sale price on the website and the prices are set until the end of July.

The Ultimate Cheese Press

The Ultimate Cheese Press is made for home cheese makers, designed and manufactured by the owner of Homesteaders Supply right here in the USA! Made from a beautiful grained hard maple, with a lighter basic color with various shades of darker marbling. Each press is as unique as the wood its made from. $165, the lowest price we’ve been able to offer in a long time.

Our new video by Wardeh Harmon, founder of GNOWFGLINS, is in and features a press treated with organic coconut oil.

Italian Mozzarella Cheesemaking Kit

Italian Mozzarella Cheesemaking Kit

This Italian Mozzarella Cheesemaking kit is for making real Italian Mozzarella and is exclusively from Homesteader’s Supply! Most mozzarella recipes call for using citric acid, vinegar or lemon.. making your cheese in about 30 minutes, an easy way to get what you want fast. But, if you would like to try an old fashioned way to make the best mozzarella you have ever tasted, try our kit where the recipe uses a special Italian culture instead of citric acid, that adds a very unique old-world flavor to this cheese. And of course, the extra time involved making this cheese also enhances the great flavor. $53.50

Squeezo Strainer and Sauce Maker – Delux

Making homemade tomato sauce, applesauce and preserves is no longer a chore when you use the All Metal Squeezo Strainer and Sauce Maker, now with Stainless Steel Screens! The Squeezo Strainer made by Best Products today is the same as the old Garden Way Squeezo Strainer later made by Lemra Products. Made the same as it was 25-30 years ago and still made in the USA.

Cherry Pitter Deluxe

Cherry Pitter Delux

Delux Cherry Pitter. Made in the USA! Now on sale at $199.00AND we give you free shipping!

New and improved Cherry Pitter that will easily remove the pits of five cherries at a time, even the largest diameter cherries. It is USA Made and is all stainless steel. The design easily removes the pits without losing the cherries’ juice. With a quick pull of the handle the stones are discarded and the cherries drop into a container below.

We give you personalized service, with added instructions for cleaning the natural, organic way, and we are available to help you with any questions you have about the set up and use of our product. We don’t just say that we give you good customer service…we actually do it!

The trees are turning, revealing amazing fall colors of reds, yellows, pinks, oranges and browns… the garden survived the first frost and is winding down production. We built up the box stalls in the barn to ensure that the cow and horse had a warm and dry place to bed down at night. The days of fall are getting colder and shorter.We’ve been in Wisconsin for about three months now and it’s already time to start planning for the coming winter months. We talked about what it is we’ll need to get done before winter and I realized, as the discussion went on, how different the climate in Wisconsin will be from that of Arizona. In Arizona, we’d get snow… sometimes at least a foot in a good overnight storm, but it would typically melt off in a day or so and while it was cool outside, it was rarely bitter cold. I am thinking that those mild winter days are behind me with the move to Wisconsin! So, today’s blog will toss around our winter planning ideas and I would encourage hearing from all of you on how you’re planning for your winter months.

130 bales of 2 string hay plus the loose pile

First item on our list was to ensure a good food supply for Do and Cookie cow. We did end up finding a great resource for hay. We purchased about 100 bales of Alf-Alfa and about 30 bales of grass hay.We hadn’t been here long enough to find a resource for used pallets… so for this year we used two 12′ x 5′ corral panels as an air gap beneath the pile. I am hoping it is enough to keep it from molding. So far, the bales we’ve fed have been lush and green with zero mold smell or evidence of too much moisture. We did stack this in the corner of the 30 x 60 pole barn / garage. One thing completed on our list!!Today’s big task is to go through the barn and garage to pull out anything that can’t tolerate freezing temperatures! I use Espree Aloe Herbal Fly Repellent on the cow and horse… this doesn’t tolerate freezing well so I’ve made a livestock shelf in the basement for this and other items I’ll pull from the tack room. Ivomec, Blu Kote, etc… Really, any liquid items in your tack room should be pulled for the winter months to avoid container splitting or reducing the effectiveness of the product.Tack was another question that popped into my mind, though from what I’ve read on many forums, a good oiling in the fall and covering your tack will keep it safe from damage through the cold months.

Heated auto fill water source

Water sources for Cookie and Do are another consideration for the Wisconsin winters. We have a heated water source. It’s an auto fill, tied directly to the well, and has a heater inside the housing to keep the water from freezing. While I am comfortable with this, and love that it has access from front and back (though not visible in the picture)… I’m thinking I want a back up water source in the barn. In Arizona, I used a large metal garbage can that I purchased specifically for a back up water source. I put a large rock in the bottom and set a submersible heating element on top of the rock. I used the rock just to create a larger heat source. We had temperatures in AZ that would dip to -9 degrees and this stayed at 40 degrees. As long as I can make sure that the furry kids have access to water, I’m happy!!!So, in summary… the furry kids have a warm place to sleep for winter… plenty of food…. and a good water source. All items that can freeze have been removed from the tack room and into the heated basement. Tack has been oiled and covered for protection. Have I missed anything that you can think of???Happy Homesteading and I hope you all are enjoying the hot cider and amazing fall colors!!!

Now that we are getting unpacked and finding time to walk the property, we’re seeing the weed growth that has taken hold in the two pastures here on the new homestead. Weeds have taken over where nice grasses once lived and I find myself seeing the need to lay the groundwork now for a healthy pasture this fall and into next spring.

The horse is still on the skinny side from the move across the country and then moving from the boarding place to the forever homestead. We find the need to feed him hay from our newly purchased winter hay stash and it’s only September. While we know we’ll be needed to call the hay guy for another hundred bales or so… we are also looking ahead to see what will need to be done for next spring to get the pastures healthy enough to support livestock next year. So many questions arise! Do we rent a tractor and till up the land and plant fresh for next year or do we seed right on top of what’s there and see what takes root?Much of the arena is sand based and is in need of top soil if it will host alf alfa or clover. The horse loves to stay in the soft sandy areas because of his dropped fetlocks and the cushion it seems to provide his hooves. The larger area is very wooded and has a lot of fallen branches to clean up, as well as some trees that need to come down so sunlight can reach the seeds and encourage growth. I know that all of this will take time and much planning, yet being a typical modern day American… I want it all done NOW!!! hahaha…

I am resisting the urge to just go in there and til it all under… my concern is that the soil that is there will run off with a good rain due to the sloping nature of our parcel. I’m leaning toward taking our time and pulling the large weeds that have grown into the fence line as well as the weeds that have crowded out the grass in certain areas. Perhaps with that done, we’ll be able to germinate some seeds this coming spring and begin the process of creating a healthy pasture for Cookie cow and Do the horse.

Hello all. It’s Nance… the geeky homesteading side of Homesteader’s Supply… Jerri is still in Chino Valley, AZ while I and my family have recently moved from Chino Valley to Arena, Wisconsin. The move was for many reasons, one of which was that homesteading in the dry Arizona landscape was super expensive and almost impossible in many respects.

Gardening was super challenging… I tried straw bale gardening, in ground beds and container gardening… none of which offered enough harvest for canning and all of which required at least twice a day watering.

Then there was the challenge of having livestock in a land of no pasture grass…. We bought hay year around and with two dairy cows, a horse, a goat and two dairy calves, the feed bill peaked at $1,000.00 per month. Each time gas went up… so did hay prices because all of it had to be trucked in… then when gas prices when down – however hay never did go down in price… What was an $8.00 bale of hay is now a $22.00 bale of hay!

Along with the homesteading issues we faced… we were also looking for a school for my son to attend for auto mechanics… so we pack up the house in to a U-Pack truck and load Cookie cow and Do, the horse into the trailer and set sails to Wisconsin where we had a college for Matt and green grass for the furry kids, along with the hope of easy gardening!!! Little did we know we were moving from the driest place on earth to the…. second driest place on earth!

Our trip was welcomed on day two with 102 degree temps in Missouri and day three offered 106 degrees in Illinois. To say it was hot in a pickup and civic – both with no air conditioning – is an understatement!!! We bagged up ice into Ziploc bags for the cats to cool off on. We wrapped ice into bandanas and tied them around our necks to keep us somewhat cool. We arrived into Wisconsin during the worst drought since the 1950’s! The pastures we planned for Cookie and Do was now brown and void of nutrition.

So, how do you tend to livestock during a severe drought????

I ask because we ran out of transition hay for the furries and had to resort to buying cubed Alf Alfa hay… I have yet to find a store that has any hay to sell and need to make sure these two have some food with nutrients!!!

How are all of you fairing in the drought????

Here’s to hoping for rain and a quality hay supplier by fall for a winter stock pile! Despite the drought, we are all very happy with the move and look forward to a good hard rain!!!

Cookie cow and the other furry kids have a nice size water tank with a drain plug for weekly scrubbing. (For those of you who don’t live in the desert, the sun is quite the algae builder!) Winter’s are cold in the mountains of Arizona and temperatures can drop down below zero at night. When fluke cold snaps hit in the early fall, I have been seen out at the water tank with an axe breaking up the ice so the livestock could get to the water. It’s then that I typically pull out the heavy duty extension cord and hook up the deicer for the livestock tank.

This is one of those items that no livestock owner should be without, that is unless you live in Florida or Hawaii… or Phoenix, but for those of us with winter weather, a water tank deicer is imperative. Most units are thermostatically controlled and only kick on when freezing temperatures warrant the need. I slide the large tank up close to the fence and tuck the cord for the deicer through the fence at the lip of the tank. This keeps the calves from playing with the cord and either unplugging it, or worse, chewing through the insulation to the wires. Guards can be purchased if you need to keep a plastic bucket of water from freezing, but I am always nervous about a heating element and plastic. If a stock tank is too costly, go to your local hardware store and purchase a large 35 gallon metal garbage can or two. It would likely require daily filling, but would offer your furry kids a clean source of fresh water.

Do you have an electric free trick to keep an ice free livestock tank? If so I’d love to hear some of the ideas out there!!!